SIMPLE GUIDANCE FOR YOU PINK DIAMONDS

Many famous diamonds have a long and intriguing history that is often centuries old. But the Pink Star Diamond is fairly new. This year, it celebrates its 20th birthday. De Beers mined the Pink Star in 1999 in one of their mines in South Africa. When found, the rough Pink diamonds weighed 132.5 carat. But the size wasn’t the only thing that made it such an extraordinary discovery. It was the remarkable color that captured the heart. The so-called Fancy Vivid Pink is a very rare color, let alone in a diamond of this size.

Steinmetz Pink diamonds bought the rough stone from De Beers. They decided a diamond this rare needed a special cut. Steinmetz took no less than 8 polishers and 20 months to cut the pink diamond. Even for rare diamonds, this is a very long time. Considering it takes one polisher about 8 hours to polish a one-carat diamond. But the result is also impressive. The final product weighs 59.60 carats. It has an internally flawless clarity grade and was laved as fancy vivid pink with the highest color grade.

Steinmetz polished the Pink diamond into a “Mixed Oval Brilliant”. A combination between a brilliant and an oval is not that uncommon. But instead of regular facets, they polished a step cut crown and a brilliant cut pavilion. You may recognize step cut facets from emerald cut diamonds and Asscher cut diamonds. The combination of the cut and the facets makes it look like there is a star shape inside the stone.

Steinmetz unveiled the precious Pink diamond in Monaco in a public ceremony. They displayed it under the name “The Steinmetz Pink”. In Monaco, the diamond was part of the Smithsonian’s “The Splendor of Diamonds” exhibition. The pink diamond shined next to other impressive stones, like the Pumpkin Diamond, The Ocean Dream, The Moussaieff Red, the Alnatt Diamond, and the Millennium Star.

Pink Diamond in 2007 for an undisclosed sum to an anonymous buyer. This private sale resulted in a renaming of the diamond to “The Pink Star”. The new owner then entrusted the diamond to the Sotheby’s as to be sold at the November 13, 2013 auction.

The famous diamond polisher Isaac Wolf from New York wanted to buy the Pink diamond. He would rename it “The Pink Dream”. The diamond would cost him over 83 million dollar. The diamond and auction world went wild! This sale would break all world records for any gemstone. But the auction price was not settled by the buyer. And the stone went back to Sotheby’s inventory.

Sotheby’s put the vivid Pink diamond on auction again. This time, the auction took place in Hong Kong. But now, the diamond actually got sold. Dr. Henry Cheng Kar-Shun, chairman of the jeweler Chow Tai Fook bought the remarkable stone for HK$553 million. This equals no less than 71.2 million US dollars. Dr. Henry named renamed the Pink Star Diamond to “CTF Pink Star” in memory of his father, the late Dr. Cheng Yu-Tung.

Pink diamonds are extremely rare. Only 0.0001% of the diamonds in existence are pink. It is a gemstone that would give beauty and harmony to the world. Just like white diamonds, pink diamonds can range from flawless to (heavily) included. The Pink Star is the only pink diamond in the world that is completely flawless

The color pink is in the category of “fancy colored diamonds”. Fancy is the generic name for all diamonds that exhibit any sort of color. When a diamond has a color that is outside the D-to-Z grading spectrum, that means something has happened to the Pink diamond. This can be during its formation or during surfacing. The specific thing that happened to the diamond determines its color. For most diamonds, we know what happened with it to become a colored one.Red diamonds: caused by changes to the electron structure during the diamond’s voyage to the surface.

Orange diamonds: nitrogen atoms slip inside while the diamond is forming. When the particles are arranged in a specific way, they absorb blue and some yellow light, creating an orange appearance.

Yellow diamonds: nitrogen atoms take the place of certain carbon particles during the formation process. Only vivid-colored diamonds are called fancy yellow. Otherwise, they are inside the D-to-Z grading spectrum.

Green diamonds: natural radiation from nearby rocks trap electrons to a green color. But only on the outer layer. So when polishing a green Pink diamond, the color can get lost. However, some diamonds are green because the carbon contains traces of nickel.

Blue diamonds: a combination of boron and small pieces of nitrogen give the diamond a blue color. But also nickel or high concentrations of hydrogen can make a diamond blue.

Purple diamonds: formed due to post-growth plastic deformation while surfacing the earth via magma.

While we know for most colors how they are formed, it is still a bit hazy for pink colored diamonds. One of the theories as to how they are formed is that the diamond underwent extreme pressure during its formation. Another theory is that a seismic shock altered the color of the Pink diamond as they surfaced the earth. Most scientists believe that the color in a pink diamond is caused by color centers. “Color centers can selectively absorb light in the visible region of the spectrum. They are the result of lattice defects or imperfections in the arrangement of the atoms in a crystal” (Source: GIA). In other words: while the stones are still embedded in the earth’s crust, the combination of intense heat and pressure distorts the crystal lattice. That is how the lattice can absorb a particular band of green light rays.